New Delhi: A top Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander has told the party’s terrorists in Kashmir that it was becoming increasingly difficult to supply them with ‘necessary items’. Indian intelligence has said that the man who made the comment is Mufti Rauf Asghar. He is an operational commander in JeM and the brother of Masood Azhar. By ‘necessary items’ he meant weapons and explosives. Asghar’s telephonic message to Jaish terrorists in Kashmir has been intercepted by Indian intelligence.
The message was sent soon after the gunbattle at Ban toll plaza in Jammu’s Nagrota. It led to the elimination of four heavily armed Pakistani terrorists within hours of crossing the border, people familiar with the matter said.
JeM chief and UN designated global terrorist Masood Azhar is allegedly under treatment for a life-threatening spine aliment. In his absence Asghar has become the de fact chief of the JeM. He had overseen the infiltration of the four terrorists from Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Also read: 4 JeM terrorists killed in Jammu encounter
It should be stated here that the November 19 encounter in Nagarkota has been a huge setback for JeM. The terror group was really keen that the four who had infiltrated were successful in their plans. Heavy investment had been done for the training and infiltration. BSF personnel who have seen the 200-metre tunnel dug under the border fence said the engineering detail that had gone into digging the tunnel in Pakistan’s Shakargarh area was a surprise. The terrorists were well armed too. A total of 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 hand grenades and six grenades to be fired from an under barrel launcher were seized.
The infiltration of the four terrorists was part of an effort by Pakistan-based terrorist groups to prepare for a major drive in Jammu and Kashmir said intelligence reports. They said terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is also mobilising cadres from its Chelabandi camp in Muzaffarabad to fresh locations in The Hizbul Mujahideen (HeM) is training nearly 400 cadres at a newly constructed facility in the forest area of Oghi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
The reports also said that with the heat increasing along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, the terrorist groups are exploring other areas for infiltration into India. According to one input, the ‘Al Badr’ group is exploring ways to infiltrate into India from Bangladesh after security forces tightened the security grid across the LoC in Kashmir.